Jim,

In addition to Dean's comments about unpacking the module (Before you power the unit up, remove the main cover, and remove the packing that holds the boards in place for shipping.):

The module in standby should draw about 160 mA at 12 V dc.

TEMP? should return about 690 (ADC values) at room temperature. You can also check FAN ON, FAN OFF, etc.

When you power up, use CALTEMP 0.0,0.036,0.0 to get the calibration in the ballpark before you do any Centigrade commands. The default in the current firmware is not right. You have to do this every time it is powered up.

PIDTEMP 50.0,0.1,0.0,300,500,100 seems to work well. The default in the current firmware is not right. You have to do this every time it is powered up.

For PCR with FAM, start with 100 milliseconds on Channel 1. For PCR with TAMRA, start with 400 milliseconds on Channel 2. The TAMRA is kind of noisy. For our PCR verifications, FAM at 100 ms started at 1500 and went up to 2500, and TAMRA at 400 ms started at 1000 and went up to 2070.

I don't know how much optimization testing you folks have been doing, but I found it was helpful in dye tests to run a routine with multiple integrations at each cycle. This could probably be used for PCR too:

0:TEMP,93,135000;1:TEMP,60,30000;2:READ,20,20,20,20;2:READ,100,100,100,100;3:READ,200,200,200,200;4:READ,400,400,400,400;5:READ,800,800,800,800;6:TEMP,72,15000;7:TEMP,94,15000;8:LOOP,1,45;9:TEMP,40,10000;11:ENDP?

There is a minor possibility of photobleaching with extra light exposure, but we have not characterized that.

John Dz